Temporal limbic changes were described in numerous post-mortem and neuroimaging studies. However, the question whether these changes refer to a generalized process or reflect local changes remained unresolved. The aims of our study are: firstly, to confirm temporal limbic changes in schizophrenia using high-resolution quantitative MRI; and second, to investigate temporal limbic changes with respect to subcortical and frontal changes. Up to now, 10 healthy controls and 12 DSM IIIR schizophrenics participated in our ongoing trial. 3D MRI sequences were acquired using a MPRAGE sequence on a 1.5T Siemens Magnetom. This sequence provides 128 contiguous slices through the whole head with a thickness/gap of 1.4/0 mm in about 12 min. Whole brain volume, total intracranial volume (TIV), volumes of the frontal and temporal lobes, the amygdala-hippocampus complex (AHC), the hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, the caudatum and the putamen-pallidum complex were assessed. Measurements were performed by two independent raters (interrater reliability: r = 0.95-0.96, P < 0.0001) on a conventional 486 PC. The volumetric data were corrected for head size by dividing the absolute values by the TIV. Apart from the right AHC and the parahippocampal gyri, all temporal limbic structures differed significantly (P < 0.05) between patients and controls. Within the schizophrenics, significant correlations were found between the AHC and the posterior hippocampus. None of the temporal limbic structures was significantly correlated with the volumes of the temporal or frontal lobe nor any of the subcortical measures. Our preliminary findings confirm earlier reports demonstrating temporal limbic changes in schizophrenia and suggest that these changes do not correspond to generalized brain changes.